Sometimes we perceive things that are not true. I remember a time when I was rocking my new little baby girl. I sent my 5 year old son a few houses up the street to give our newspaper to my mother and younger sister. My sister wasn’t feeling well so didn’t go to work that day with my mother. When my son entered apartment building he went down the steps to their apartment. My sister heard somebody come into the foyer, but they didn’t knock. All she heard was the rustling of paper. There had recently been some scary calls and someone had been seen lurking around the apartment building. She was quite concerned that whoever it was meant to do her harm. She waited and waited, but nothing happened so she became frightened and wanted to get out of the apartment. The only exit was in her bedroom through the small window in the back of the apartment which was at ground level. She got on the cedar chest and tried and tried to wiggle through the window. Finally she succeeded, but with many scrapes and bruises. At one time she had seen the neighbor next door and tried to signal her to get her attention without saying anything because she didn’t want to let the intruder know she was home. She was afraid they might come around the apartment and find her escaping.

When she got through the window she ran down to my house, burst through the door, and saw me sitting there rocking the baby. She leaned up against the doorway and started puffing and panting with a look of shear terror on her face. She was so frightened she was pale. When I saw the panic on her face pain went threw my whole body! I was so frightened I asked her, “Where is my son?” She looked at me with a puzzled look on her face and proceeded to tell me what had happened. When the full impact of what had happened dawned on me I began to laugh and laugh and told her that I had sent my son up to give her the newspaper.

I then left my baby with her while I went up to see what my son was doing. When he saw me come in the apartment he didn’t say a word. He just came and handed me the newspaper. He didn’t know he was suppose to knock on her door. He just expected his aunt to open it for him so he could give her the newspaper, and dutifully he waited until she did!

My sister perceived that she was in danger. My son perceived that his aunt would open the door. I perceived that something bad had happened to my son. You might laugh at this situation as we have many times, but what about our perceptions of God? Don’t we at times perceive by circumstances that we are in, and God does not rescue us, that He doesn’t love us? Is this the way God is? Is this a God of Love? God sees and knows all things. He works things out for the best. One of my favorite Bible verses are Isaiah 41:10 KJV “Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” And, Isaiah 41:13 KJV “For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.” When going through troubles and trials I have been know to squeeze that right hand. It helps! He is Awesome! Only as our perception of God changes can we come closer to Him. To know Him is to love Him. We need to see Him as He really is … LOVE!

PERCEPTION

God is our Friend no matter what we do,
He is with us our whole life through.
He feels our joys, our pains, our sorrows, and our fears,
He’s coming back soon to wipe away our tears.

If you think, my friend, it wasn’t for you He died,
Think again, Heaven is waiting to welcome you inside.
It was for sinners such as you and me,
That Jesus died that we may live through all eternity.

Norma Wellman Butterflyblue7@frontier.com